Stormy with a Chance of Love
by MidKnight Rider
Summary: This was inspired by one of my tumblr friends who had an image of Jonas with a pet he kept with him constantly. So I wrote it for her, but I'm posting it here too. It is utter, literal, fluff
1. Chapter 1

When Jack had suggested a team lunch, Sam hadn't expected that it would be the hot dog cart in the park. It was a really good hot dog cart, specializing in gourmet and unusual combinations. They even had Perrier. She asked him about it on the way to the picnic table where Jonas and Teal'c were already seated. Jonas had a jumbo chili cheese dog. Teal'c's was Chicago style, as was Jack's. Sam liked hers pretty basic – relish, ketchup and mustard. They had put their food on the table and then Sam had gone back to the cart with Jack to collect the baked beans, coleslaw and French fries.

"The park?" Sam asked, knowing that Jack would understand all the unspoken words in the question.

Her CO shrugged and then tilted his head at their team mates. "They spend enough time surrounded by four walls," he said.

"We take them off-world all the time," Sam pointed out.

"Yeah, and they're _working_ ," Jack answered. "It's hard to enjoy the fresh air when you're running for your life in it." He lifted his cup of root beer and waved it around to indicate the park, "This is…peaceful."

Sam couldn't argue with that. As they approached the picnic table she moved over closer to Jack and bumped him with her shoulder a little bit. It was nothing that anyone would really notice. Really it could have been caused when she stepped around something in the grass.

But Jack glanced down at her from under his sunglasses and said, "Welcome."

Because he got all those unspoken words too – thank you for watching out for them, for their mental health, for their well-being, thank you for telling me why you did it so that I can learn from you, thank you for being Jack O'Neill.

Sam appreciated everything Jack did for his team and especially – at the moment – for Jonas. Jonas had spent an enormous amount of time under the weight of concrete and the hurt, resentful gaze of all of Daniel's colleagues. Jack's willingness to look beyond what had happened and actually _see_ Jonas had gone a long way to helping everyone move into a place that was at least stable, if still deep in mourning.

The guys had taken places on the same side of the picnic table (which was metal and bolted to the concrete pad under it, or it would surely have tipped over just from the considerable mass of Teal'c.) It meant that Sam and Jack had to sit down beside each other. Jack didn't comment at all. Sam kind of grinned to herself.

In the very beginning, Jonas had been quiet. Then he had started talking more and asking questions until it had reached the point where he was hardly ever silent once his curiosity had been piqued.

His questions of the moment ranged from _what kind of tree is that_ (aspen) to _is that a blue jay_ (yes), _ground squirrel_ (no, gray squirrel) _, what game are those kids playing_ (Frisbee). If he wasn't eating he was asking about his new planet. Then his attention was caught by a small, furry creature hopping across the grass.

"What's that?" he asked, genuinely excited.

"It's a rabbit," Sam answered, grinning at him.

"A rabbit," Jonas repeated, still staring at it as if he was enchanted.

Sam started to tell him more about rabbits, even though she didn't really know all that much. But Jonas put down what was left of this hot dog and jumped up off the bench.

"Oh, Jonas, no," she called, "It's just going to…okay, well, you'll find out."

With his teammates watching with varying degrees of amusement, consternation and perplexity, Jonas chased the brown rabbit around the park until it finally took off at a dead run. Jonas stood still in the grass and the sunlight, looking in the direction it had gone. His face was expectant and hopeful but when it didn't return he made his way back to the table.

Sliding back into his spot on the bench he reached for his Sprite and sipped at it thoughtfully.

"Will you be researching rabbits when we return to base, Jonas Quinn?" Teal'c asked.

Picking up the remains of his lunch Jonas nodded enthusiastically. "Oh, yeah," he said. "It was just so _cute._ "

"Well, be careful," Jack said. "They have big teeth and they can leap about."

Teal'c stared at O'Neill balefully. Sam choked on her Diet Coke and covered her laughter with a napkin.

"Sir!" Sam said, in admonishment.

Jonas blinked and said, "What?"

"Nothin'," Jack answered. "Finish your lunch."

Jonas looked quizzical but complied. "Yes, sir," he said.

(0)

Rabbits became Jonas Quinn's 'best new thing in the whole world' and somehow continued that way for much longer than anyone expected.

Coming back from P92-058, Jonas was talking about them – again – all the way from the Gate Room to the lockers.

"And they can run 35 miles an hour. Isn't that amazing? Something that small can run that fast. Of course 50% of the rabbit is hind legs so I guess it's not that surprising. Oh, and they can jump three feet or higher for the same reason. They can be domesticated too. Over 2 million people in the United States alone have pet rabbits."

Sam let him chatter at her, because she always did, and Sam was just as curious about the world as Jonas. If he wanted to give her free facts about rabbits, it seemed harmless enough. It was also a pretty easy way to give the guy some support and friendship.

Still, he managed to surprise her when they were out one day and Sam stopped at her favorite Farm and Garden store for grass seed and fertilizer. It was early spring and her lawn was more moss than grass at the moment. She'd taken Jonas along with her for another chance to get out in the fresh air, mindful of what she had learned from Jack about the team's mental health. He'd wandered off while she was talking about weed control with the good-looking guy in the garden department and Sam wasn't too worried about it. The place was huge and full of things that would catch his attention. She wasn't even worried when he came and asked for her keys because he had 'picked up a few things and wanted to put them in the car.'

She lost track of him again for a while at checkout. Dialing his number she waited patiently for him to answer the phone.

"Where are you?" she asked.

"In the car," he said.

"Why?" Sam couldn't quite stop the word because she was baffled.

"I didn't want to leave all this stuff unattended."

Okay, she had felt a small thrill of panic when he said that because Jonas had pretty good-sized quarters back on the base, but he didn't have a whole lot of room for a lot of stuff.

"What did you get?" Sam asked, trying to sound interested and not alarmed.

"Oh, you'll see," Jonas said and hung up on her.

Startled, Sam looked at the phone for a moment to be sure that's what had happened. Then the cashier needed her attention and she tucked the phone away, resolving to deal with it when she saw what he had gotten.

She could see him sitting in the Volvo with the door open. He had one leg stretched out on the pavement and something cradled in his arms, head bent over it.

Sam's thrill of alarm returned and notched up another couple of notes. By the time she got to the car her entire carillon of warning bells was going off.

There was the top of a cage visible in the back seat and a gigantic feed bag, so she knew what he was holding before she'd gotten all the way to him.

"Jonas," she began.

But he looked up at her with an expression of pure, idiotic joy and she stumbled to a helpless halt because Samantha Carter – badass, sharp shooting Air Force officer – was simply not that heartless.

"What did you do?" she asked with a heavy sigh.

In Jonas's arms was the smallest bit of rabbit-shaped gray fluff that she had ever seen.

"Isn't he awesome?" Jonas asked. "His name is Stormy."

Sam thought, _Oh god._ Then she took a deep breath as her genius brain ran through the regs. Okay, the base was full of cats, mostly for pest control. But a lot of them were owned (or in the way of cats, had decided to be owned by) some of the single guys who called the base home. There really was no reason Jonas couldn't have a pet. None that she could see anyway, though she wasn't the final say on the subject.

Forcing a bright indulgent smile onto her face Sam said, "He's gorgeous."

(0)


	2. Chapter 2

Stormy, it turned out, wasn't just a plain old gray rabbit. He was a silver Rex, with actual pedigree papers that Sam found in an envelope inside the bag with the toys and brushes. Jonas was particularly delighted about that and, after finding out that Rex meant 'king', had Sam help him fill out the paperwork to register him with the National Rex Rabbit Club. Jonas listed his name as HRM Storm King of Stargate. Sam started to object and then shrugged. It's not like anyone was going to make a connection from a rabbit name straight to a top secret government program to explore planets.

Jack stopped by Daniel's office to be introduced to the furry little fellow. He stood there perched on the stool at the table watching Jonas feeding all the wires in the room through metal tubes while explaining that rabbits were known to chew on wires and this was the best way to prevent that. He chattered away about the various things Stormy was going to need and how he was going to take care of him, and not let him run around the Base or anything. He finally wound down by saying,

"Oh and I found he's not really gray. He 'lilac'. If you look at him closely in the light you can see that the ends of his fur have pink tips."

Jonas looked at Jack to see if he was going to get a response. Jack gazed back for a moment and then turned to Sam,

"Carter?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Did he just tell me his rabbit is purple?"

"No, sir. He said, 'lilac'."

"Oh," Jack said, nodding thoughtfully. He looked at Sam again. "There's a difference?"

"Apparently, yes. Sir," Sam told him.

Jack hopped off the stool. Jonas was regarding his CO anxiously at this point but Jack just slapped a hand hard on Jonas's shoulder and said,

"Don't bring it to the briefings."

Relief and happiness lit up Jonas's expression like fireworks on the fourth of July.

"Thank you, sir," he said, "I won't let you down."

"I know," Jack said, sauntering out of the room.

Jonas picked Stormy up off the floor and tucked him under his arm, letting him rest on his palm and wrist. He stroked his other hand down over Stormy's ears and soft furry back.

"You hear that? You get to stay," Jonas said, grinning.

"Yeah he does," Sam said.

They stood there for a few minutes with Jonas still petting his new rabbit and Sam grinning back at him and then Sam asked, "Can I hold him?"

"Oh yeah sure," Jonas said, "here… like this…."

(0)


	3. Chapter 3

Sam hadn't checked on Jonas in a while. She tried not to ever make it seem like she was checking on him. In fact, it hadn't felt that way in a long time. Now when she sought him out, it was to genuinely enjoy his company.

The door to the office was closed these days to keep Stormy from hopping out into the corridor in search of adventure. The bunny was as curious as any cat Sam had ever known, and Jonas spent a lot of his free time getting Stormy out of trouble and creating distractions for him. She found Jonas standing by the table looking at the scrolls they'd brought back from P94-X30 a lifetime ago. Daniel had never gotten around to doing anything with them. He'd put them carefully in the 'to do' pile on the lab table and they had stayed there ever since.

Jonas looked up and flashed his very best warm, welcoming smile. Sam carefully closed the door and then bent over to pet Stormy. The bunny was no longer little. He'd grown very quickly. But he was still adorable and oh so soft.

Sam smiled at Jonas and walked over to look at the scrolls. "They make any sense to you?" she asked.

"None whatsoever," he admitted cheerfully, and then added with a grin, "yet."

Sam laughed a little as she walked over and plopped down in the chair by the desk. She started to ask him another question when her attention was caught by Stormy. When she'd taken the chair Stormy had run over to her and was now running frantically from her to Jonas, pushing his nose against Jonas' foot and then charging back to Sam. He varied it by running in a tight little circle from time to time, but mostly he just went back and forth between them.

"Jonas?" Sam asked with some alarm. "Is he all right?"

Jonas' expression had changed from its more normal fascination and joy of discovery to one of resigned sadness.

"Yeah," he said, and Sam could tell he was trying to still sound positive. "He doesn't like it when anyone but me sits in the chair."

Sam didn't quite know what to say to that for a moment. It was possibly the cutest thing she had ever heard and words failed her. Jonas went on with false brightness.

"Of course, I think he's the only one on the Base who thinks I should be in that chair, so….." His voice trailed off uncertainly and he shrugged.

 _Oh Jonas,_ Sam thought. She was going to have to be careful what she said next. If she told him that wasn't true he wouldn't believe her for a moment.

"That not exactly true," she said, gently. "Lots of us believe you should be here."

"Really?" He asked, hope sparking.

"Well clearly General Hammond does. I do. Teal'c. Colonel O'Neill-"

"He said that?" Jonas asked.

In the harsh glare of the overhead lighting, Jonas' fleeting expressions painted the three short words with cascading subtext. He wanted to believe it, but he didn't believe it, he didn't want Sam to lie to him, he wanted to hear more and it would kill him to hear more. He cared, but he didn't care, because he refused to risk being hurt any more. Months of striving and feeling as if he constantly fell short, wondering always if Colonel O'Neill had truly forgiven him, had left him disheartened.

Jonas bent over and picked Stormy up, letting the rabbit rest his long body along his arms, fingers supporting Stormy's chest. He stroked the other hand down over the rabbit's ears and soft furry back.

"Sam can sit in the chair," he murmured. "It's okay."

It gave Sam a chance to order her thoughts and get past the lump in her throat.

"Yes, Jonas, Colonel O'Neill thinks you belong in the chair, or you wouldn't be in it. Has he ever said that? No. But in case you haven't figured it out yet, his MO is to _never let on._ You're going to have to learn to read his subtext."

Jonas considered that, still petting Stormy. "His subtext is worse than Teal'c's?"

Sam laughed then, because 90% of a conversation with Teal'c was subtext.

"Much worse. Believe me, if Jack didn't want you there, you wouldn't be there. He's got more power here than he ever uses, but when he feels strongly about something, he makes it happen," she said, standing up and gesturing at the chair. "Sit down. I don't want to keep upsetting your poor rabbit."

He hesitated but Sam took his arm and steered him towards it, pushing him in the chest gently until he sat down.

"There," she said. "Does that make him feel better?"

Jonas looked up and found her looking back at him with such an anxious expression that he stopped the glib answer that he was about to give.

He considered it carefully because he understood now that when Sam had said 'him' she wasn't talking about Stormy. He hugged the rabbit a little tighter and finally nodded.

"Yeah," Jonas said, smiling again, "He feels much better."

(0)


End file.
